Rainy Days and Other People’s Words.

I don’t know why rainy days so often require the application of other people’s poetry, but for me, they often do.  Today’s re-discovery was Max Ehrmann, mostly known for his infamous hippie manifesto, “Desiderata.” I like that, and most of his work….but especially this one, which is now in the running to be my favorite poem ever.

“Wanderers” by Max Ehrmann

A clear, cool night. I have been reading, but the thoughts of man do not solace me.
I raised the curtain and looked at the moon, clear and silvery; and I brushed some of the unrest out of my mind.
I know all the theories of the moon.
There have been times when the symbols of science have robbed me of some of its mystery and charm.
But no one can explain the moon any more than a grasshopper can explain me.
In youth, the moon promised too much.
But now I understand better; that was not the moon’s fault.
Also the moon and I have this in common:
We both are wanderers across the night.

Over the course of the day, I came across another work I felt the need to post.  It’s fabulous.

“The Journey” by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice - - -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
‘Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations - - -
though their melancholy
was terrible.It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do - - - determined to save
the only life you could save.